Please could I have my green wall?

Vertical garden is definitely my idea of sustainable luxury – a living art, aesthetically designed to compensate the lack of green in urban settings. A few other benefits on the top of my head: it helps regulate building temperature, provides sound insulation, acts as habitat restoration for some wild life species, purifies the air we breathe and is literally good for our eyes!

It’s a Van Gogh painting!

Two years ago when we moved to a flat with a small balcony – I called up a landscape contractor for a site visit to build one. We stood there at the balcony staring at this blank wall…

Man: “You will have trouble with irrigation.”

Me: “Oh I don’t mind spending time watering the plants.”

Man: “They will die eventually.”

Me: “Yeah, just like any plants in pots perhaps? Feel free to use various species suitable for the purpose, I’m easy with the arrangement.”

Man: “No it doesn’t work. Your wall is facing West…”

Me: Huh? “Well, what about those crawling plants? I heard they grow easily”

“No, they will break the wall.”

Me: <speechless>

Man “Why don’t you just put some potter plants here?”

<dead silence>

It’s a statement, it is an art. JUST GIVE ME A Darn GREEN WALL!!!

For the size of 1.5 metres width and 3 metres height, the green wall was quoted at HK$45,000. I called up another contractor to explain my needs over the phone. He didn’t even give me a quote while making me feel a total idiot again. End of my naïve drama for a green wall.